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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Our house is broken. There is really no other way of putting it, its just flat out broken. We have an upstairs bathroom with a leaky shower and our basement leaks. See its really broken.

The shower has leaked for about 4 years. Everything else in th bathroom works but the shower. Luckily we had another tub and shower on the first floor so we were able to stop using it immediately. But we haven't been able to fix it because our roof leaked and was fixed first (See what I mean about broken - stupid old houses. Did I mention the new furnace and electrical work?). Then we needed to save up money for Bunny's adoption. (The choice between adoption and remodeling is really a no brainer.) It doesn't put too much strain on our day to day life, but it would be nice to have two working showers.

Well we decided to fix the bathroom this year. We figured between savings and our home equity loan we'd be able to completely redo the bathroom and still pursue our second adoption. We were excited about that.

But then it snowed almost 100 inches in Milwaukee this year and we started to get water in our basement when it melted. Now our basement was a finished family room. We had our TV down there and it was also Bunny's playroom. It had to be fixed right away, no question about it. So we tore up the carpet and got estimates for the work.

Everytime Bunny walks past the stairs to the basement, she looks down and says "Can't go down there, its broken. Daddy fix broken."

Hopefully the work will begin later this month or in early June. But then we will have to redo the basement once its done. So we will be without that room for a few months more. Now all of Bunny's toys are strewn about the living room and dining room. We've moved the TV up there too. Its not as comfortable as it was before but we can live with it for a few months. And apparently we can live another year without the new bathroom too.

Now you may ask why don't we do some of the remodel ourselves and save money. Maybe that way we can get both done. Well you see my beloved Bubs is not really handy at all. He can use a screwdriver, a hammer and nails and even a drill. He can assemble furniture. But that is really about it. Since I love him and all of his limbs, I would never ask him to touch a power tool nor would he ever offer too.

My mom keeps telling us to sell the house and buy a newer home with less problems. Because people like us should not own old homes. Well that's great in theory but you can't sell a broken house in this market. So here we sit with our stupid broken house and I've completely forgotten why I wanted to buy it in the first place.

So the moral of the story is don't buy an old house, unless you are handy with more than just a hammer and nails.